Good looking iZON lets you look in on your house and family members

By Todd Bernhardon Fri, 05/25/2012

The iZON from stem is a beautiful, functional Wi-Fi enabled security camera / NannyCam. In fact, it looks like it was designed by Apple, which is high praise indeed. It's a small cylinder, reminiscent of Apple's original iSight external camera.

The removable convex base connects to the iZON via magnets, allowing for some flexible angles.

A friend of mine asked me about how to keep an eye on her elderly mother, and the iZON seemed like the ideal solution. It connects to the Internet via WiFi, so we had to make sure she had that (or a friendly neighbor with an open access point!).

You can specify if the camera should notify you when it senses movement. You can access the video stream remotely via the free stem connect app, or if you prefer, have videos uploaded directly to YouTube at predetermined intervals. You might want to set your YouTube privacy levels accordingly!

It takes some patience to setup. The thing that threw me off was that the camera is delayed several seconds... It's kind of like those satellite TV interviews. So you might be adjusting the camera while running the app and it looks like it doesn't move. Then a few seconds later, it catches up. So keep that in mind. It also means that while in theory you could use the iZON and a telephone to video chat, it isn't really practical because the audio and video would be out of sync. So stick to FaceTime for that!

Once you have the iZON setup, as long as you have a reliable wireless network, you can have a nice little surveillance system setup. Multiple family members, with proper access control, can keep an eye on loved ones, and that can be priceless. Speaking of prices, they have a Memorial Day Sale going on right now so check it out!